Re: SVP Meeting Fallout

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 12:18 PM 10/20/97 -0400, you wrote:

>First, the proposal.  I got this idea before the meeting, but there was too
>little time to debate it before the meeting.  Would it be feasable to make
>and sell written transcripts of talks at the meetings?  How about videos?
>There are many, I am sure, who are unable to go to the meeting, but would
>like to hear the lecture first hand.  Some money could go to the presenter.
> Would presenters be willing to be transcribed/video taped?  Am I the only
>one who would buy copies?

There is some sort of arrangements that need to be made before the talks at
SVP can be taped or filmed.  (After all, consider the cases of Bakker or
Horner: they get paid good money for speaking elsewhere...).  In general,
scientific conferences are not transcribed, except by the occasional grad
student.

>Did anyone hear the talk on tyrannosaur ontogeny?  What was covered?  ANy
>new information?

Carr & Essner's work is being written up: I don't know where or when it will
come out.  They have some interesting data and interesting techniques.
Unlike Bakker, I have very little confidence that number of maxillary teeth
is an absolute with regards to ontogeny in reptiles: I would be interested
in seeing the CAT scans of the braincase of Nanotyrannus before I take a
position.  (As I said in my talk, the character distribution supports either
the idea that Nanotyrannus is a juvenile T. rex OR that it is the
plesiomorphic sister taxon to Tyrannosaurus).

Hopefully Carr & Essner will follow me in putting Gorgosaurus back in its
proper place.

>Two new allosaurids?  Is there good evidence, or has he just found
>variations that he considers new species (no offence intended)?

IF the specimens look like they way they've been illustrated, there is a
good case for at least two species, and possibly two genera, of Morrison
allosaurid (as others, including myself, have argued).  "Creosaurus atrox"
is a fine name with a fine history, but work on the types would have to be
done before this is sorted out.

HOWEVER, as many people commented on Bakker's talk, "doesn't this guy know
what a camera is?".  Bakker's a fine illustrator, but photographs of the
actual specimens are needed before people are going to be convinced.

>How good is the new Epantarius skull?  Are there details?

Who knows?  What we saw was a life restoration, not a photo of a fossil

>Boy, he has been a busy
>man recently.  Apatosaurus skull, Epantarius skull, new species.....

Indeed.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661